As a non active role-player but someone who loves it being in games from most to least important
1)emotes with animations
2)interact with the world such as sitting in a chair or leaning on a wall
3) custom emote chat that doesn't show up unless your close enough to see the person such as "/em does thing" "Itwashear does thing" in a different color in chat
4)no or very very little limit on outfits preferably that doesn't limit combat so RP is not limited to safe places in town
5)custom actions that bring attention to someone such as custom music like in mabongi
6)tags next to name to quickly see how people would like to be interacted with such <RP><OOC><AFK><DND>
What systems and features make roleplaying fun? What features help remove hurdles and barriers?
The first thing that immediately comes to mind is expressive animations and emote systems. I have two examples here of the "best in the industry" in my opinion, one that I know Lord Steven played and one maybe not. I don't know the rules on naming other games but I don't see any reason we shouldn't take the best ideas from other products to make Ashes as amazing as possible.
The first of which is ArcheAge, which had really fluid and goofy emotes, multiple dances that you could perform while moving to style on people during gameplay, etc. The second and more important example would be ESO. That game has incredibly immersive and expressive emotes, from leaning on walls, holding a torch at night, being able to sit 10 different ways on surfaces, hammer on a table, stand there with a mug by the fire, play MULTIPLE instruments whenever you want, you name it they added it to the game. Systems like this won't make pvp competitive, or the end game boss more fun to progress, but they create the moments that make people say "Wow, I love this game and I want to be in this world all day". It's so important to nail these systems not just for the roleplay crowd but even hardcore players. As someone who sweats away in the "Realm First" groups etc. in other games I can honestly say the majority of my favorite memories are laughing at random encounters in the world that are created from the sort of under the hood side systems like this throughout thousands of hours in the world.
I'm aware that the devs don't intend to add RP servers, the last this has been mentioned was the May livestream of 2017, but I think they should reconsider having at least two servers per region that are tagged for roleplay in the server list. Either way you will have roleplayers on the forums deciding which server to use, so you might as well make it official to avoid causing OOC conflict between roleplayers and non-roleplayers on the server. No changes would have to be made to how the server works.
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RavicusMember, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One
I guess I don't have a whole lot of input other than a couple ideas. All we need are the basics really. Lots of emotes. Interactive settings around the world, be it in the wild or in town. Things like being able to sit as a group around a campfire, or benches in a park. A church/wedding area, non deity specific. Overlooks to look at the stars while laying on our backs, discussing constellations. Things of this nature. The interaction between people will happen organically. Maybe syncronized dancing as well. Dart throwing contests in bars. Arhcery/axe throwing. Oh my I'm going in tangents lol.
Hi ! Just one major thing in my opinion : Proximity Filter Layered voice chat.
Filter : Just the Group, Just the Guild, Meters Radius (To prevent griefing etc) or if a people want to participate an icon above his head and the possibility to register a "Voice mail" for a first contact.
Layered : Opt in communities (Trading, PKing, RP, Zone, Faction, Quiet Mode, Friends only etc etc)
I never thought that the video game was a good place for Writed Role Playing in the first place, but it is my opinion. And i understand poeple who like to write. But in a game with so much to do, to see, to react to, i think it is a shame to not have a Proximity based voice chat, or at least an integration with popular voice chat. With filters and opt-in circles i think you can have a really nice RP experience while adventuring and not necessarily just spend 4 hours in the evening in the same place waiting to other person to write an essay. GTA RP did it and it's immensely popular.
I think a wages system for free holds and business' would be great and would allow RP players to earn some coin while doing what they enjoy. I have seen this work in some older MMO games with a coffers system on the owned property. it also adds some management for property owners game play and ensures they aren't just exploiting free labour.
I've been RPing as an orc in UO off and on for about twenty years now. Currently playing on a player-run server with a guild of orc roleplayers (some of whom have been at this since 1998). Sometimes in conversation the question of why we haven't gotten into a more modern game comes up, and why we have been sticking with the old game we've been playing for so long. A few things come to mind.
1) In other MMOs, the idea of progress tends to dominate things. There's a distinct lack of freedom and a lot of things tend to move on rails. Things like daily quests and instanced content have a tendency to take you out of the immersion and keep you on the progress treadmill, plus there aren't many places for players to congregate. Most of the space in a game is dedicated to some progression aspect such as various quest hubs, etc. I think that systems you have in place now like Freeholds will help with that quite a bit, but if we were to feel like we were being somehow punished for taking the time out to roleplay with like-minded players, it might drive some people away from the community. Obviously we have to be self-aware enough to realize that we're taking time away from game progression to do this no matter what, and have to be okay with that sacrifice. But if we get constant notifications/menus popping up relating to different activities we could be doing instead, that could cause people to stay away from the various RP hubs in favor of getting out certain grinds.
2) Communication between enemies. The lack of cross-faction communication that some popular MMOs has really hinders roleplay potential. You need to be able to have both allies and enemies to tell a decent story and if ALL of your enemy interactions are just wordless violence, there's not much depth to it and the whole series of interactions gets very boring very quick. While I would like there to be racial languages as an option in the game, I absolutely do not want to see any hindrance of communication between enemy players, with the obvious exception of the sometimes-needed ignore feature.
3) "Junk" items that can be placed in various locations. I love what you guys have going on with the furniture and the open spaces in freeholds, but there's another related category of items that I want to see included here. Having generic every-day junk items available for players to use in different creative ways makes a huge difference. One of the things that really worked for UO was how you could either loot or craft all kinds of "worthless" items like skulls, silverware, bits of debris, gems, rocks, etc, and then use them to decorate your house, build odd structures by stacking them creatively, using them to make roadblocks or totems in your territory, and other little fluff things. If every item has to have a defined purpose and nothing flavorful is included, this could hinder creativity. Some of the stuff my guild has been able to do with logs, boards, boxes, a few bones, and a little trash has led to countless hours of entertainment for both us and other players.
4) Costuming options. The reason that most (if not all) of the orc guilds in UO came to be was because players noticed that there were a few pieces of equipment that, when worn, made your character look like an orc NPC, and decided that it would be fun to wear that and talk like a very stupid caveman. And we enjoyed this so much that there are still multiple groups of us doing that to this day. Outfits that stimulate the imagination are very important for roleplayers. Having a wide array of fashion items that allow you to convey different character types will really help players portray the characters that they want to portray. Some people want to look like filthy brigands, others want to look like high and mighty warlords, and some players just want to be a chef or a stablehand. It seems like you already have this covered, but it bears mentioning.
5) Roleplay event creation. This has taken a number of different forms across various servers through the years, but having systems in place to assist the different RP guilds in telling their stories will greatly nurture any RP community. In some UO servers, for instance, there is a Seer position, a type of GM that focuses on the RP story and driving that along. Some servers have welcomed roleplayers to come to seers with their event ideas and worked with them to make that happen with NPC placement, special effects, monster spawn, etc. The most fun I have ever had in an MMO comes from this kind of event, the ones where there are stories being told and in-play consequences for my actions. The post on the first page that discussed SWG's storyteller system reads like a great idea to accomplish the same thing, potentially with less GM involvement, freeing them up to do other things. I personally prefer the more personal touch of seer interaction, but either way, as long as these events can be created and run, I'm happy.
6) Proximity chat. This has been brought up a lot already, but I have to echo the sentiment. It's necessary for roleplay.
7) The option to freely attack guildmates and/or allies. This one might be a little odd for a lot of the RP community, but for those of us on the "bad guy" side of the fence, it's an absolute must. An underling stepped out of line? Kill em. The general of an allied army didn't follow through on his side of the deal? Time to attack. My guildmate looked at me funny? Oh it's on. We orcs spend a lot of time killing each other and in a lot of ways it's pretty essential to my guild's style of doing things. Killing our lowest-ranking members for getting out of line just never gets old. In other games, I've been restricted to a consensual dueling system, and that takes all the surprise (and most of the fun) out of that particular encounter, not to mention it keeps us higher-ups from ganging up on the poor guy. I can appreciate that not everybody would want things to work this way in their own guild, but leaving it as an option for those of us that do would be immensely helpful in allowing us to tell the stories we want to tell.
I've been RPing as an orc in UO off and on for about twenty years now. Currently playing on a player-run server with a guild of orc roleplayers (some of whom have been at this since 1998). Sometimes in conversation the question of why we haven't gotten into a more modern game comes up, and why we have been sticking with the old game we've been playing for so long. A few things come to mind.
The Dünir Hold Mithril Warhammers,Thanes of the Keelhaul, Dünir scourge of the oceans, Warhammer First Fleet Command of The Dünzenkell Nation, friends to the Dünir Dwarves of the Dünhold.Hammers High!
I've been RPing for probably 15 or so years now primarily in WoW. So, most of my experience comes from there. Tried others but Ashes - though it's not even out! - managed to spark my interest. I think it has so much potential I'm excited to see where it goes.
I haven't been on the forums here for few months and I am quite happy I popped in and saw this thread. I have thoughts I'd like to share. First, I am a bit on the fence about separate realms. RPers tend to be griefed and hate magnets as expressed by the quote below:
I played FFXIV on Balmung the "Unoffical" RP server from release & I just want to say for an unquestionable fact that RP'ers Ruin MMO's,
They avoid content, when they do content they don't learn or do mechanics so you need to carry them, In fact in FFXIV I was the Bard who helped Blacklisted carry many of the server through Titan, when there DPS got tried, meanwhile I was playing from New Zealand @ 360ms Ping after release Which alone proves my point in Stone! They ERP in hidden areas using public chat & its at sickening levels.
So to my point I have zero respect for RP'ers, Do us all a favor give them an Official RP server so we are not stuck with them & cater RP events AWAY from the rest of the player base!
Sorry he had a bad experience, but most of us aren't like that. Some of us actually do play the game, we just play it in character quite often. But people do come after us because they think we are "easy pickins" and we get griefed a lot. Though some non-Rpers like us, because we can add immersion. I think whether we are on our own realm or running free-range with everyone else, we will be targets to some degree. Some sort of griefing and ganking protection would be appreciated.
Beyond that, I think that something like character sheets would be great. I know non-rpers who use character sheets and have a backstory for their characters because they like immersion.
Useable chairs, benches, and sitting areas scattered around - even in out of the way places!!!!! Maybe an medium size open area with a bonfire or something like that. One weekly rp event on my server is a Story Telling Circle where characters gather and listen to other characters read stories they have written. Yes, even non-rpers attend! Maybe a small amphitheatre near a town. Just be creative! If you build it, we will eventually find it and use it.
Definitely whispers, says, and party chat.
Emotes
I'm not sure where you are going to be placing crafting areas, but in towns and cities it would be nice to put them near places with "foot traffic" from other players. Some of us RP our crafting as our profession.
I think you have a good handle on some stuff like housing and the freeholds. There is more I could add to the list, but other people have already talk about it. Thank you for actually taking the time to ask us.
I'm aware that the devs don't intend to add RP servers, the last this has been mentioned was the May livestream of 2017, but I think they should reconsider having at least two servers per region that are tagged for roleplay in the server list. Either way you will have roleplayers on the forums deciding which server to use, so you might as well make it official to avoid causing OOC conflict between roleplayers and non-roleplayers on the server. No changes would have to be made to how the server works.
I don't know if RPers like to be watched but if I knew on which server are the majority, I would maybe make an alt there to see what is happening.
I've been RPing as an orc in UO off and on for about twenty years now. Currently playing on a player-run server with a guild of orc roleplayers (some of whom have been at this since 1998). Sometimes in conversation the question of why we haven't gotten into a more modern game comes up, and why we have been sticking with the old game we've been playing for so long. A few things come to mind.
Bloodrock, actually. We do have a lot of former Shadowclan members in our ranks now though, it's become kind of a melting pot of old orc clans.
For me roleplaying in an MMORPG is all about expressing yourself through various archetypes of character fantasy. For example classes are an archetype of character fantasy, as are races, or a stat list describing having various skills, or skill trees with limited resources that do the same. I can imagine being a farmer is a character fantasy. Or being really good at designing within the player housing system. Everything that players do should be in the spirit of fulfilling one or more of these fantasy archetypes, and the design challenge for the devs is equally about deciding which archetypes to focus on creating the fantasy for as much as how they create that fantasy.
For example a paladin wants to feel righteous and holy when they battle and when they're being asked to help in the world, so everything about their kit should help serve this purpose. Additionally, playing out certain fantasy archetypes often helps serve in playing out others as well, such as a paladin wanting to play out being corrupted (mixing primary class paladin with secondary class necromancer).
What systems and features make roleplaying fun? What features help remove hurdles and barriers?
I'm not exactly an active roleplayer but I do enjoy making background stories for my characters and fitting them into the world's lore. A few ideas:
1)Naming traditions of each race. LotRO gives players a brief explanation in the character creation panel on how each race creates their names and a few examples. In ESO I could follow that part of the lore as well through wiki pages, as TES series have a long established and rich lore.
2)Specific reactions of NPCs depending on your background (religion, race, choices made before, etc).
3) A good variety of emotes. I loved to leave my character smoking a pipe in LotRO hahaha
4)Interaction with the world. Leaning against walls, sitting in chairs, pet domestic animals, light campfires/torches/braziers, etc
5a)Biography tab in the character panel. This is another detail I appreciated about LotRO: when you inspect another player you can see their biography, read their background story or whatever they wrote there (fortunately that game has a mature playerbase overall haha ).
5b) An alternative are pre-established background stories that you choose from, like GW2, that influence your character's story development, dialogues and cutscenes (I don't know if AoC will have cutscenes).
6)Community events and seasonal events. Those are common in MMORPGs and I imagine are already being considered.
It is nice to see a team that asks for and hear player's ideas. I hope I could contribute.
I'd argue that Roleplaying relies on immersion. If the game has a lot of mechanics that are not explained or don't make a lot of sense all the while not providing a compelling story then most players won't try to play an actual role.
If the quests tell me that I am Most-Import-Person-In-The-World#556878 without explanation for the other ones then no suspension of disbelief can happen.
If I have to use third party software like discord or similar, or etc. outside of the game it will seriously break immersion…
like if you miss messages in game because you’re not in the right chat room or paying attention, that should have consequences.
risk vs reward
pay attention to messages —-> reward? risk? are you being baited or is there treasure at the end of the tunnel?
ignore messages ——-> risk? reward? are you forging a new path with no time to read messages? what if you miss out on important information?
things like word of mouth should matter for roleplay, using “cheats” like guides, websites, third party programs are all immersion breaking and therefore undesirable. in much the same way that tier 3 mounts reliable method being gatekept for whoever has the most simps and not behind some skill level of animal husbandry is immersion breaking and undesirable.
its 2023 can we have discord in game mom?
why should we need to use third party applications/game development crutches in a modern built from the ground up, if it’s possible to build features in game?
tl;dr: third party software, like discord = bad for roleplaying
I apologize for any typing mistakes as English is not my first language.
These are the things I would love to see when it comes to roleplaying/immersion:
1)Unique names items: it would be great to see items drop from world mobs/dungeons/chests that are not only "axe of the *randomized name here*" with random stats but actually have the chance to get some rare items that have their own background and place in the game's world.
2)Each class/archetype has its own place and role: I'd like classes to feel unique and have different kits than the others, it's perfectly fine if a rogue can stun a target but a tank can't.
The classes will have different strengths and be fit for different tasks, which is something I find really immersive and makes other classes feel needed.
3)Classes have access to utility spells that can be used out of combat:
I'd really like to see applications of magic out of combat, for example the ability to light a dark room via magic light or the ability to use a far sight spell that can help spot enemies from a huge range. This applies to non magic classes too, maybe for example rogues being able to lockpick secret doors/chests, rangers able to deactivate traps, bards being able to perform and so on.
4)Reflect the effects of magic on everyday's society: It would be great to see the effect of magic on cities, in a world full of magic users some things could be different. To build citied the stonemasons could rely on mages to lift heavy materials via telekinesis for example, or fishermen could ask mages to catch fishes via the same method above, also might rely less on the artificial light of lanterns and instead have enchanted lights on the street.
In my mind Mages players could potentially offer services for such jobs as described above.
Also it would be nice if magic could damage structures and if cities/fortresses could also defend from this.
Maybe for example a group of mages during a siege can cast some kind of ritual and conjure a massive pyroblast that could cause a breach in the city walls, or alter the weather/terrain and hinder the enemy army. I would imagine in a magical setting that the defenders could probably have hired/have in their ranks other mages to defend themselves against such events.
5)In game lore available through books and documents: I'd love to have some kind of bookstores/archives where the various lore is stored and maybe players could in their journey loot lost documents and tomes and sell/provide them to the various stores and archives scattered around the world, recovering lost knowledge.
6) Some kind of limitations on gear according to who is using it: I'd like the gear to actually provide bonus/malus, for example if a rogue can wear heavy armor then let them have a penalty on stealth and movement speed reduction, unless they get proficient in the usage.
7) Various weapons or magical items require training: I'd love it if players could use any item, regardless of the class so long as they are trained for it.
A mage could be a great swordsman, but he/she will have to practice much to reach the level of a skilled fighter.
Could have some starting archetypes from level 1 (for example my mage could be someone who just found out to be gifted for magic, therefore he will know less magic than most apprentice mages but have a higher starting skill in some weapons and armor)
8)Have the player characters not be a chosen one kind of character: I love the idea the player characters are just a bunch of people with different stories, motivations and backgrounds.
They don't have a big bad guy to defeat but rather a huge, massive, vibrant world to discover and get lost into and where they can try carve their place in History in their own way.
I think wow classic (vanilla) does this really well.
9)Have multiple ways to solve some quests:
This is probably really hard to implement in a MMORPG but it would be great to have some quests with multiple ways to be completed.
Probably the dynamic story arcs your brilliant team has developed offer a good potential here!
That's all I have in mind for now.
Thank you so much for the opportunity to have a confrontation about the topic!
Comments
1)emotes with animations
2)interact with the world such as sitting in a chair or leaning on a wall
3) custom emote chat that doesn't show up unless your close enough to see the person such as "/em does thing" "Itwashear does thing" in a different color in chat
4)no or very very little limit on outfits preferably that doesn't limit combat so RP is not limited to safe places in town
5)custom actions that bring attention to someone such as custom music like in mabongi
6)tags next to name to quickly see how people would like to be interacted with such <RP><OOC><AFK><DND>
The first thing that immediately comes to mind is expressive animations and emote systems. I have two examples here of the "best in the industry" in my opinion, one that I know Lord Steven played and one maybe not. I don't know the rules on naming other games but I don't see any reason we shouldn't take the best ideas from other products to make Ashes as amazing as possible.
The first of which is ArcheAge, which had really fluid and goofy emotes, multiple dances that you could perform while moving to style on people during gameplay, etc. The second and more important example would be ESO. That game has incredibly immersive and expressive emotes, from leaning on walls, holding a torch at night, being able to sit 10 different ways on surfaces, hammer on a table, stand there with a mug by the fire, play MULTIPLE instruments whenever you want, you name it they added it to the game. Systems like this won't make pvp competitive, or the end game boss more fun to progress, but they create the moments that make people say "Wow, I love this game and I want to be in this world all day". It's so important to nail these systems not just for the roleplay crowd but even hardcore players. As someone who sweats away in the "Realm First" groups etc. in other games I can honestly say the majority of my favorite memories are laughing at random encounters in the world that are created from the sort of under the hood side systems like this throughout thousands of hours in the world.
Filter : Just the Group, Just the Guild, Meters Radius (To prevent griefing etc) or if a people want to participate an icon above his head and the possibility to register a "Voice mail" for a first contact.
Layered : Opt in communities (Trading, PKing, RP, Zone, Faction, Quiet Mode, Friends only etc etc)
I never thought that the video game was a good place for Writed Role Playing in the first place, but it is my opinion. And i understand poeple who like to write. But in a game with so much to do, to see, to react to, i think it is a shame to not have a Proximity based voice chat, or at least an integration with popular voice chat. With filters and opt-in circles i think you can have a really nice RP experience while adventuring and not necessarily just spend 4 hours in the evening in the same place waiting to other person to write an essay. GTA RP did it and it's immensely popular.
1) In other MMOs, the idea of progress tends to dominate things. There's a distinct lack of freedom and a lot of things tend to move on rails. Things like daily quests and instanced content have a tendency to take you out of the immersion and keep you on the progress treadmill, plus there aren't many places for players to congregate. Most of the space in a game is dedicated to some progression aspect such as various quest hubs, etc. I think that systems you have in place now like Freeholds will help with that quite a bit, but if we were to feel like we were being somehow punished for taking the time out to roleplay with like-minded players, it might drive some people away from the community. Obviously we have to be self-aware enough to realize that we're taking time away from game progression to do this no matter what, and have to be okay with that sacrifice. But if we get constant notifications/menus popping up relating to different activities we could be doing instead, that could cause people to stay away from the various RP hubs in favor of getting out certain grinds.
2) Communication between enemies. The lack of cross-faction communication that some popular MMOs has really hinders roleplay potential. You need to be able to have both allies and enemies to tell a decent story and if ALL of your enemy interactions are just wordless violence, there's not much depth to it and the whole series of interactions gets very boring very quick. While I would like there to be racial languages as an option in the game, I absolutely do not want to see any hindrance of communication between enemy players, with the obvious exception of the sometimes-needed ignore feature.
3) "Junk" items that can be placed in various locations. I love what you guys have going on with the furniture and the open spaces in freeholds, but there's another related category of items that I want to see included here. Having generic every-day junk items available for players to use in different creative ways makes a huge difference. One of the things that really worked for UO was how you could either loot or craft all kinds of "worthless" items like skulls, silverware, bits of debris, gems, rocks, etc, and then use them to decorate your house, build odd structures by stacking them creatively, using them to make roadblocks or totems in your territory, and other little fluff things. If every item has to have a defined purpose and nothing flavorful is included, this could hinder creativity. Some of the stuff my guild has been able to do with logs, boards, boxes, a few bones, and a little trash has led to countless hours of entertainment for both us and other players.
4) Costuming options. The reason that most (if not all) of the orc guilds in UO came to be was because players noticed that there were a few pieces of equipment that, when worn, made your character look like an orc NPC, and decided that it would be fun to wear that and talk like a very stupid caveman. And we enjoyed this so much that there are still multiple groups of us doing that to this day. Outfits that stimulate the imagination are very important for roleplayers. Having a wide array of fashion items that allow you to convey different character types will really help players portray the characters that they want to portray. Some people want to look like filthy brigands, others want to look like high and mighty warlords, and some players just want to be a chef or a stablehand. It seems like you already have this covered, but it bears mentioning.
5) Roleplay event creation. This has taken a number of different forms across various servers through the years, but having systems in place to assist the different RP guilds in telling their stories will greatly nurture any RP community. In some UO servers, for instance, there is a Seer position, a type of GM that focuses on the RP story and driving that along. Some servers have welcomed roleplayers to come to seers with their event ideas and worked with them to make that happen with NPC placement, special effects, monster spawn, etc. The most fun I have ever had in an MMO comes from this kind of event, the ones where there are stories being told and in-play consequences for my actions. The post on the first page that discussed SWG's storyteller system reads like a great idea to accomplish the same thing, potentially with less GM involvement, freeing them up to do other things. I personally prefer the more personal touch of seer interaction, but either way, as long as these events can be created and run, I'm happy.
6) Proximity chat. This has been brought up a lot already, but I have to echo the sentiment. It's necessary for roleplay.
7) The option to freely attack guildmates and/or allies. This one might be a little odd for a lot of the RP community, but for those of us on the "bad guy" side of the fence, it's an absolute must. An underling stepped out of line? Kill em. The general of an allied army didn't follow through on his side of the deal? Time to attack. My guildmate looked at me funny? Oh it's on. We orcs spend a lot of time killing each other and in a lot of ways it's pretty essential to my guild's style of doing things. Killing our lowest-ranking members for getting out of line just never gets old. In other games, I've been restricted to a consensual dueling system, and that takes all the surprise (and most of the fun) out of that particular encounter, not to mention it keeps us higher-ups from ganging up on the poor guy. I can appreciate that not everybody would want things to work this way in their own guild, but leaving it as an option for those of us that do would be immensely helpful in allowing us to tell the stories we want to tell.
I haven't been on the forums here for few months and I am quite happy I popped in and saw this thread. I have thoughts I'd like to share. First, I am a bit on the fence about separate realms. RPers tend to be griefed and hate magnets as expressed by the quote below:
Sorry he had a bad experience, but most of us aren't like that. Some of us actually do play the game, we just play it in character quite often. But people do come after us because they think we are "easy pickins" and we get griefed a lot. Though some non-Rpers like us, because we can add immersion. I think whether we are on our own realm or running free-range with everyone else, we will be targets to some degree. Some sort of griefing and ganking protection would be appreciated.
Beyond that, I think that something like character sheets would be great. I know non-rpers who use character sheets and have a backstory for their characters because they like immersion.
Useable chairs, benches, and sitting areas scattered around - even in out of the way places!!!!! Maybe an medium size open area with a bonfire or something like that. One weekly rp event on my server is a Story Telling Circle where characters gather and listen to other characters read stories they have written. Yes, even non-rpers attend! Maybe a small amphitheatre near a town. Just be creative! If you build it, we will eventually find it and use it.
Definitely whispers, says, and party chat.
Emotes
I'm not sure where you are going to be placing crafting areas, but in towns and cities it would be nice to put them near places with "foot traffic" from other players. Some of us RP our crafting as our profession.
I think you have a good handle on some stuff like housing and the freeholds. There is more I could add to the list, but other people have already talk about it. Thank you for actually taking the time to ask us.
I don't know if RPers like to be watched but if I knew on which server are the majority, I would maybe make an alt there to see what is happening.
Bloodrock, actually. We do have a lot of former Shadowclan members in our ranks now though, it's become kind of a melting pot of old orc clans.
For example a paladin wants to feel righteous and holy when they battle and when they're being asked to help in the world, so everything about their kit should help serve this purpose. Additionally, playing out certain fantasy archetypes often helps serve in playing out others as well, such as a paladin wanting to play out being corrupted (mixing primary class paladin with secondary class necromancer).
I'm not exactly an active roleplayer but I do enjoy making background stories for my characters and fitting them into the world's lore. A few ideas:
1) Naming traditions of each race. LotRO gives players a brief explanation in the character creation panel on how each race creates their names and a few examples. In ESO I could follow that part of the lore as well through wiki pages, as TES series have a long established and rich lore.
2) Specific reactions of NPCs depending on your background (religion, race, choices made before, etc).
3) A good variety of emotes. I loved to leave my character smoking a pipe in LotRO hahaha
4) Interaction with the world. Leaning against walls, sitting in chairs, pet domestic animals, light campfires/torches/braziers, etc
5a) Biography tab in the character panel. This is another detail I appreciated about LotRO: when you inspect another player you can see their biography, read their background story or whatever they wrote there (fortunately that game has a mature playerbase overall haha ).
5b) An alternative are pre-established background stories that you choose from, like GW2, that influence your character's story development, dialogues and cutscenes (I don't know if AoC will have cutscenes).
6) Community events and seasonal events. Those are common in MMORPGs and I imagine are already being considered.
It is nice to see a team that asks for and hear player's ideas. I hope I could contribute.
If I have to use third party software like discord or similar, or etc. outside of the game it will seriously break immersion…
like if you miss messages in game because you’re not in the right chat room or paying attention, that should have consequences.
risk vs reward
pay attention to messages —-> reward? risk? are you being baited or is there treasure at the end of the tunnel?
ignore messages ——-> risk? reward? are you forging a new path with no time to read messages? what if you miss out on important information?
things like word of mouth should matter for roleplay, using “cheats” like guides, websites, third party programs are all immersion breaking and therefore undesirable. in much the same way that tier 3 mounts reliable method being gatekept for whoever has the most simps and not behind some skill level of animal husbandry is immersion breaking and undesirable.
its 2023 can we have discord in game mom?
why should we need to use third party applications/game development crutches in a modern built from the ground up, if it’s possible to build features in game?
tl;dr: third party software, like discord = bad for roleplaying
I apologize for any typing mistakes as English is not my first language.
These are the things I would love to see when it comes to roleplaying/immersion:
1)Unique names items: it would be great to see items drop from world mobs/dungeons/chests that are not only "axe of the *randomized name here*" with random stats but actually have the chance to get some rare items that have their own background and place in the game's world.
2)Each class/archetype has its own place and role: I'd like classes to feel unique and have different kits than the others, it's perfectly fine if a rogue can stun a target but a tank can't.
The classes will have different strengths and be fit for different tasks, which is something I find really immersive and makes other classes feel needed.
3)Classes have access to utility spells that can be used out of combat:
I'd really like to see applications of magic out of combat, for example the ability to light a dark room via magic light or the ability to use a far sight spell that can help spot enemies from a huge range. This applies to non magic classes too, maybe for example rogues being able to lockpick secret doors/chests, rangers able to deactivate traps, bards being able to perform and so on.
4)Reflect the effects of magic on everyday's society: It would be great to see the effect of magic on cities, in a world full of magic users some things could be different. To build citied the stonemasons could rely on mages to lift heavy materials via telekinesis for example, or fishermen could ask mages to catch fishes via the same method above, also might rely less on the artificial light of lanterns and instead have enchanted lights on the street.
In my mind Mages players could potentially offer services for such jobs as described above.
Also it would be nice if magic could damage structures and if cities/fortresses could also defend from this.
Maybe for example a group of mages during a siege can cast some kind of ritual and conjure a massive pyroblast that could cause a breach in the city walls, or alter the weather/terrain and hinder the enemy army. I would imagine in a magical setting that the defenders could probably have hired/have in their ranks other mages to defend themselves against such events.
5)In game lore available through books and documents: I'd love to have some kind of bookstores/archives where the various lore is stored and maybe players could in their journey loot lost documents and tomes and sell/provide them to the various stores and archives scattered around the world, recovering lost knowledge.
6) Some kind of limitations on gear according to who is using it: I'd like the gear to actually provide bonus/malus, for example if a rogue can wear heavy armor then let them have a penalty on stealth and movement speed reduction, unless they get proficient in the usage.
7) Various weapons or magical items require training: I'd love it if players could use any item, regardless of the class so long as they are trained for it.
A mage could be a great swordsman, but he/she will have to practice much to reach the level of a skilled fighter.
Could have some starting archetypes from level 1 (for example my mage could be someone who just found out to be gifted for magic, therefore he will know less magic than most apprentice mages but have a higher starting skill in some weapons and armor)
8)Have the player characters not be a chosen one kind of character: I love the idea the player characters are just a bunch of people with different stories, motivations and backgrounds.
They don't have a big bad guy to defeat but rather a huge, massive, vibrant world to discover and get lost into and where they can try carve their place in History in their own way.
I think wow classic (vanilla) does this really well.
9)Have multiple ways to solve some quests:
This is probably really hard to implement in a MMORPG but it would be great to have some quests with multiple ways to be completed.
Probably the dynamic story arcs your brilliant team has developed offer a good potential here!
That's all I have in mind for now.
Thank you so much for the opportunity to have a confrontation about the topic!